Partial booze banworth tryingat 'The Hunt'

The Far Hills Race Meeting has a drinking problem, in the form of rowdy, alcohol-fueled behavior that has increasingly marred the event. It got so bad last year - including more than two dozen arrests for fights and instances of public urination - that local officials were considering banning alcohol from the races entirely.

That possibility, however, didn't sit well with many spectators, especially the well-to-do that help make "The Hunt" - a fundraiser for the Somerset Medical Center Foundation - one of the premier social gatherings of the year in Somerset County. Unhappy wealthy people mean less money and big trouble for the event organizers, so it was clear even in the immediate aftermath of last October's event that a full booze ban was off the table.

Instead, officials are only planning to cut off ordinary folks with general admission tickets who enter through pedestrian gates. They are the ones who will no longer be allowed to bring alcohol onto the premises. Alcohol will instead be available exclusively to those paying for reserved parking spots for tailgating, or those invited to private and corporate tents, which are often catered affairs.

If this all sounds a little bit elitist - even for an event with the rarefied atmosphere of the Far Hills Race Meeting - you're right. But look past the superficial elements, and this particular solution also appears to be a fair approach, at least as a one-year experiment.

Officials say that the bulk of the problems have come from countless smaller parties in the general admission section, and thus that's where the changes should apply. The idea seems to be not to punish those spectators who have handled their alcohol consumption more responsibly. Far Hills Mayor Paul Vallone complained that the "complexion" of the event has changed, tainting what used to be a "wonderful family venue."

Run all of this through a bureaucratic-speak translator, and what officials are saying is that "The Hunt" has become an excuse to party among too many young folks - and that's not what the Far Hills Race Meeting is supposed to be about.

Selectively targeting the problem at its apparent source does make some sense. And problems involving a few dozen people in a typical crowd of more than 30,000 don't suggest some sort of rampant debauchery, even though the Far Hills police chief did describe last year's incidents as a "riot state of behavior."

But people who want alcohol have a way of finding alcohol, even - or perhaps especially - if it's being reserved for a certain class of people. So officials had best be prepared to strictly enforce the new measure, with an enhanced police presence. Otherwise, the drinking problem won't be going away, and there will be more than enough reason to extend the alcohol ban to everyone. And that could make the wrong people very unhappy.

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Partial booze banworth tryingat 'The Hunt'

The Far Hills Race Meeting has a drinking problem, in the form of rowdy, alcohol-fueled behavior that has increasingly marred the event.

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